Facebook hits 500 million, but still not public

It’s got 500 million users. Everybody who is anybody is on it. Even Diane Sawyer joined it.

So, what’s the problem?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact that a lot of people are getting really, really tired and even bored of Facebook — and they’d move on, if they knew where to go next.

“Perhaps significant societal epochs shall be defined by social networks and personal migration,” my very good-writer friend Peter told me after seeing a link that I sent about Facebook. “We moved from MySpace to Facebook, now we’re ripe for the next adaption. To take off, it will have to take this article’s points into consideration. Excellent.”

In the Five Stages of Facebook Grief, writer Mike Elgan argues that the problem with Facebook or any social network is that it “can’t mirror the actual social networks, or social groups, that people have. Because of that, users are beginning to notice a curious effect: The more you use Facebook, the less usable it becomes.”

Elgan adds: “Facebook’s current structure is unsustainable. Eventually social groups collide. And when they do, it’s lights out for Facebook.”

The 2010 American Customer Survey Index conducted by ForeSee Results gave Facebook 64 out of 100 points in a customer satisfaction survey; that’s lower than any other business in its category. However, it’s not at the bottom of the social media heap; MySpace received one point less.

That doesn’t bode well for a company that’s trying to take its shares public. In fact, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Sawyer that he’s in no rush to take the company public.

“When it makes sense, right,” the 26-year-old Harvard attendee said. “I mean, what we’re most focused on is just building these tools that help people stay connected with the people that they care about.”

Well, it sounds like Zuckerberg knows he’s got some work to do. So, maybe I won’t do what Stan on South Park did, not yet. Instead, I’ll stay locked between No. 3 and No. 4 of Stages, and wait to see what happens next.